Before the fire
Before The Fire

St Alban Tower stands on the site of a church built in 1633-34 by Inigo Jones. This church was itself a replacement for an earlier building.  Records indicate that there has been a place of worship on the site since before 793.

This image is taken from an Elizabethan map of London showing St Alban, Wood Street.

Wren
The Wren Church

The Inigo Jones church on the site was one of the 84 churches that were completely destroyed by the Great Fire of London in September 1666, a blaze that destroyed 373 acres of the City and around 13,200 houses.

The church was rebuilt in 1682-85 by Christopher Wren at a cost of £3,165 (equivalent to about £550,000 today).

The tower was added in 1697-98 and the whole church modernised in 1858.

The tower shown here now houses the offices of Ekhinos Ltd.  However, because it was constructed 10 years after the body of the church, there is uncertainty about whether it can be attributed to Wren.

The Blitz
Bomb Damage

Following the modernisation of the church in 1858, it stood in the crowd of buildings that made up Wood Street prior to the Second World War.

Wood Street was badly damaged in an air raid in 1940, and the church was almost completely destroyed.  Only the tower remained standing.  Many other fragments were taken to repair other churches less severely damaged.  The ruins of the church were finally demolished in 1955.

The tower was renovated in the late 1980s and now stands alone on an island in the roadway.

Today
The Building Today

After the demolition of the church in the 1950s, the tower was left standing in the centre of Wood Street. Buildings housing major international banks grew up around the 17th century church tower and the pattern of streets changed to accommodate these buildings.

Today, the tower stands marooned in the centre of Wood Street, surrounded by the world of international finance.

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